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Re: Domain and Server How To

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  Re: Domain and Server How To Ivan Shmakov <oneingray@gmail.com> - 2013-03-03 17:02 +0000

#448 — Re: Domain and Server How To

>>>>> Andrew Batty <andrew@lightclock.co.uk> writes:

	[Cross-posting to news:alt.html and news:comp.mail.misc, for
	there're both a few issues with the HTML itself, and with the
	email "server" configuration described.  Excluding news:alt.html
	from Followup-To:, though.]

 > Hi, a brief but straightforward step by step guide to serving your
 > resources to the wider world.  Email, web service and domain setup.

 > http://www.lightclock.co.uk/network

 > Enjoy!

	Three questions regarding the HTML code:

	* did you consider using the <p /> element [1] for the
	  paragraphs? despite how it may look, <br /> is /not/ a proper
	  element for such;

	* did you consider splitting your document into sections? (using
	  <h2 />, and possibly <h3 />, ...);

	* did you consider checking your HTML against the W3C Markup
	  Validation Service [2]?

[1] http://www.w3.org/TR/html5/grouping-content.html#the-p-element
[2] http://validator.w3.org/

 > Domain and Server How-To

 > The main prerequisite for running a domain with a server on it is a
 > proper cable connection which is DSL rather than ADSL.  The latter is
 > fine for a client network where most traffic flows downstream to you,
 > whereas with a server you need the more symetrically rated
 > bidrectional flow of DSL rather than Asymetric DSL.

	Also, one may consider renting a "virtual" server, which may
	cost some extra 10 USD per month (although there're offerings as
	cheap as 3 USD per month), but will have almost perfect
	connectivity, and only very infrequent downtime.  (Per my
	experience, a virtual server continuously running for a year is
	more of a rule than an exception.)

 > The next step to having a domain is checking it's availability with a
 > search engine.  If your choice of domain name isn't listed then move
 > quickly to park it.  There are a few reputable companies that will do
 > this for you and it's their only role on the internet.  The likes of
 > GoDaddy and Freeparking are known to be good in the UK.

	I don't quite understand what "parking" is (and what it's for),
	but I'd prefer for the domain registrar to support /both/ DNSSEC
	and IPv6.  Which makes the list quite short.  Consider, e. g.:

https://www.sixxs.net/faq/dns/?faq=ipv6glue
http://www.icann.org/en/news/in-focus/dnssec/deployment
http://www.internetsociety.org/deploy360/resources/dnssec-registrars/

 > To check your STATIC Ip address and make a note of it on your DSL
 > connection, on which the modem must never be switched off now, click
 > here [3].  This is the Wide Area Network (Internet) side address of your
 > connection that needs registration with DNS (domain parking).

	Note, however, that now that the world is running short of IPv4
	addresses, there're quite a few ISP's that only provide NAT'ed
	Internet access.  (Which means that the IP address obtained via
	[3] may be shared among a number of ISP's clients, and thus
	utterly useless for the purposes described.)

	BTW, [3] doesn't seem to support IPv6.

[3] http://checkip.dyndns.com/

 > A minimum period for domain parking is usually two years, this is a
 > sensible initial investment.  If you do end up running a successful
 > concern renewal is something that the DNS company will remind you
 > needs attention before your domain name is snatched up by some other
 > DNS company to be auctioned or held to ransom in other words.

	The "absolute" minimum domain registration period is one year,
	AIUI.

 > When your domain is up and running with DNS test it with a ping in a
 > DOS Window or at the linux command line on a LAN side PC.  This will
 > tell you soon after DNS registration when your domain name has
 > propagated throughout DNS on the Internet and actually resolves name
 > to Ip address.  This brings us to the subject of setting static
 > addresses on the LAN side of your router for your PCs.  Routers use
 > one of two address ranges to give each client device (such as a PC)
 > an address each with DHCP.  One of these ranges is [10.x.x.x] and the
 > other is [192.168.x.x].

	These are ranges defined in RFC 1918 [4].  And there's actually
	one more of them: 172.16.0.0/16.  (Or, using "x-notation",
	172.16.x.x.)

[4] http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1918.txt

 > To see which range a router is using on your LAN in Windows at the
 > DOS prompt type "winipcfg" or later versions "ipconfig".  In linux
 > that translates to "ifconfig" on the command line.

	Alternatively, one may use $ ip addr list, or just $ ip a, at
	the GNU/Linux command line.  (OTOH, $ ifconfig would probably
	also work on other Unix-like systems, such as, e. g., FreeBSD.)

 > We are now going to set those addresses permanently on your client
 > devices using manual config rather than letting DHCP give varying
 > addresses at switch on of each client.  This enables the server on
 > the LAN to have a permanent LAN address to route it's Internet
 > traffic to.

	There should be some information, or a pointer to such, on how
	one does that.

 > To route traffic from the Internet incoming direction needs bit of
 > setup at the router.  This is variously known as port-forwarding or
 > NATting (Network Address Translation).  The webserver port is HTTP
 > which is port 80 usually.  You should know your router (gateway)
 > address from "ipconfig" on a linux client

	"ipconfig" is an obvious typo here.

 > or "ipconfig" in Windows.  Enter your router address into a client
 > machine browser and look for the port-forwarding or NAT feature and
 > route Internet side HTTP or port 80 to the server address on the LAN
 > port 80.  You could be running Apache in linux on your server or
 > perhaps IIS or Aprelium Abyss in Windows.

	Or Lighttpd, or Nginx, or...  There're a lot of HTTP servers to
	choose from, and most of the free software ones are
	cross-platform, and available for almost whatever "general
	purpose" system one may find running at one's home.

 > These HTTP server softwares are documented elsewhere.  I would say
 > that if you are using Windows 7/8 Pro or such that you need to turn
 > IIS on in Windows Features (Control Panel/Programs and Features).
 > All webservers require at least an index page in the wwwroot
 > directory to start a site with.

	... And at least Apache comes with a "default" page.

 > The rest is web coding work beyond the scope of this article.
 > Described next is setting up Google Webmasters and Analytics
 > accounts.  Your webserver possibly hosts more than one site.  All
 > your sites need to be listed in the root directory of the server in a
 > sitemap for Google.  This is a plain text file called "sitemap.txt"
 > with a list of the urls for each site.  As follows:-
 > http://www.example.net http://www.example.net/site_2
 > http://www.example.net/another_website

	I don't quite understand it.  What if my HTTP server hosts
	http://example.org/ and http://example.com/; do I need to
	mention all of the virtual hosts in a single sitemap?

[...]

 > This next section deals with mail server setup using the Exim 4 SMTP
 > and Dovecot POP3

	Note that Dovecot also supports IMAP4, which is a much more
	featureful protocol to access one's mailbox.  Personally, I've
	scrapped the last POP3 server I've had under my control
	something like a decade ago.

 > softwares and applies only to linux systems.  The type of mail server
 > described here will service a LAN subnet and send and recieve mail
 > for the domain to other mail servers on the Internet.

	Please note that this may not be possible while using a "general
	purpose" ISP, as their customers' address ranges are typically
	blacklisted at major email "hubs" (such as, e. g., Google Mail.)
	For this, one'd almost certainly need a "virtual" (or perhaps a
	collocated real one, for those having money for such) server.

 > If using a debian or ubuntu OS the server softwares should be
 > installed with Synaptic or "apt-get", that's Exim and Dovecot.  Exim
 > is the SMTP server which is the actual Mail Transfer Agent accepting
 > incoming mail from both LAN and Internet via SMTP and sending
 > outgoing mail using the same protocol.  Mail client software on LAN
 > workstations needs to collect incoming mail from the server with Post
 > Office Protocol 3 (POP3) and Dovecot serves this protocol to clients
 > from the server.  For Exim configuration see here [5] but where the
 > article specifies the listen on "127.0.0.1" address (localhost) use
 > the LAN Ip address of the server, in other words the server's
 > interface Ip address.

	To quote [5]:

 > if you want to allow remote connections then specify 127.0.0.1, then
 > a semi-colon and then the IP address of the server itself.

	thus, both 127.x.x.x /and/ the server's LAN IP address(es)
	should be entered there.

[5] http://www.electrictoolbox.com/changing-exim4-settings-debian-5-lenny/

 > For "machines to relay mail for" addresses enter your LAN series of
 > addresses.  All that remains for SMTP incoming and outoimng mail
 > transmission from the server to the wide area network is the NATting
 > (port-forwarding) of port 25 to the server machine at the router.

	My long-time recommendation would be to also configure SSL/TLS
	at both the MTA and the mailbox server; and the latter to /only/
	accept secure connections.

	Sure, it's possible to use a self-signed server X.509
	certificate here (and even some bigger folks use that; consider,
	e. g., some of the Debian MX'es), but it seems much better to
	use one that's properly signed by a "trusted party."  Such as
	https://cacert.org/.

 > The domain should now accept and be able to service SMTP connections.
 > POP3 server software Dovecot should be configured as here with
 > "mail_location" usually taking the "mbox" option with default
 > settings used in Exim 4 configuration.

	Depending on how the mailboxes are to be actually used, using
	Maildir may be a considerably better solution.

-- 
FSF associate member #7257

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